Tag Archives: Crowborough

I was recently contacted by a client who had just moved into a house in Crowborough, a town in East Sussex which by the way was once home to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories. The riven Slate tiled floor in the kitchen had trapped bits of dirt and also food which had become ingrained in the tile. Needless to say, the new homeowner wanted to give the kitchen floor a thorough clean. However, she had tried every cleaning product she could find in the supermarket, but to no avail. Struggling to find a solution she sought out professional assistance and naturally I was happy to help.

Cleaning a Slate tiled floor

My first task was to mix up a strong solution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean. The product was only slightly diluted with water, since the floor was quite heavily soiled and a higher concentration of Pro-Clean was needed to help remove several layers of dirt and food waste. Once applied to the floor, the solution was left to dwell for roughly five minutes before I began to work it into the stone with a deck brush. I did the best I could here to clean the floor without using my buffing machine as, since the floor was riven, my black buffing pad would have been ruined by the ridges.

Making up for the lack of a buffing machine, I made sure to scrub the floor with Pro-Clean for several hours to remove as much grime as possible. One the cleaning was finally completed I rinsed the floor several times with clean, hot water. I then used a wet-dry vac machine to remove any excess moisture to clear the floor for sealing when I returned 48 hours later. Upon leaving, I left my client with instructions to avoid spilling anything on the floor as, again, any liquid left on the surface might affect the performance of the sealer.

Sealing a Slate tiled floor

After a period of two days, I returned to commence the sealing. My choice of sealer was Tile Doctor Seal & Go, which is suitable for use on internal, unsealed surfaces such as Slate, textured Quarry, Victorian tile, and others. Seal and Go is also a water based sealer so you there’s very little smell given off whilst it dries compares to solvent based sealers. In this case, the client did not want the surface of the floor to be too shiny, so I only used two coatings of Seal & Go, whereas for a shinier result I would have used a few more.

My client was exceptionally pleased with the results, which had not only cleaned the floor but brought out the beautiful colours in the stone that had once been hidden under several layers of muck.

A sealer for internal use had been applied to this external black limestone patio in Crowborough and as you can see from the photograph below it had become badly affected by weather and was basically looking a real mess.

Cleaning a Limestone Patio

Working outside does have advantages in that there is a lot less preparation to do to protect other surfaces so it wasn’t long before we got to work with the application of a strong dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean which is a multi-purpose cleaner and stripper. The Pro-Clean was left to soak into the Limestone for a while so it could get to work on the remaining sealer and make it easy to remove; the next step was to use a high pressure washer fitted with a spinner attachment so not to upset the grout between the tiles. This action removed the dirt and old sealer and just needed a final rinse to wash off any remaining cleaning product before sealing.

Sealing a Limestone Patio

The patio was left to dry off overnight and fortunately due this year’s warm summer we were able to return the next day to seal the Limestone with two coats of Tile Doctor Colour Grow which unlike the previous sealer can be used on external applications, it will also protect the patio going forward making it easier to clean as well as bringing out the natural colours in the stone.

Reviews

Customer Testimonials

Mick did a great job cleaning and restoring our old terracotta tiled kitchen floor. It looks as good as new. Very professional job.By Fiona P, Piltdown

Excellent service – I’d highly recommend Mick. He did a great job on improving the look of our tiles and gave us some very helpful aftercare advice.By Paloma A, Rye

A really good finish on our very old and damaged tiles. Thank youBy Sarah , Hassocks

Very efficient service, we are delighted with the results. A cost effective way to bring slate floor tiles back to life, we were considering taking them up! Will be interesting to see how long the finish remai s this good.Many thanks for your advice on how to maintain the finish.By Richard S, Upper Hartfield

A professional and thorough service restoring 2 showers at considerably less cost than replacement. Highly recommended.By Paul P, Hove

Mick was quick to reply to queries and happy to arrange the work via my tenant. The work was completed to a high standard and Mick gave suggestions for further improvements to help prevent the mould coming back. Great service thanks.By Nick K, Tauranga, New Zealand

Mick was professional, polite and very informative as to each stage of the job and what it entailed, he is a very tidy worker and the end result was a vast improvement to my 64 year old quarry tiled kitchen fl or. Wouldn’t hesitate in giving a recommendation.By Linda B, Polegate

Mick is friendly and professional and knows TILES! He explained exactly the process involved and answered my many questions about my TILES and how to maintain them. Sadly, my Edwardian pantry/utility room til s are badly worn and were botch repaired in places. However, they have come up a treat and are now definitely red and black instead of a mucky cloudy/grey red and black and they look much better. Mick advised there was a further process to better enhance them but unfortunately the cost was not within my budget. I am very pleased with their overall look and effect. Thank you Mick for a great job.By Ms J, Crowborough

A mishap on a customer’s house left me requiring expertise to remedy a tiled porch floor which had a lot of scuffs and scratches. I initially asked for some advise and was given it with no sales tactics. But f r peace of mind leaving it to the experts, I was happy for the on-call site operative, Mick, to have a look for a call-out charge, and thankfully he managed to sort it out right there and then for a reasonable charge. All sorted within a working day. It looks better than it did before and now my customer is happy and I’m out of trouble.By Tony , Horsham

Prompt service and fitted us into his schedule very quickly. Cleaned some tough cement off old victorian tiles and they now look amazing.By Miriam T, Hove